An odd question about muscle soreness

So, for as long as I can remember, I've never experienced extreme muscle soreness that a lot of people talk about.  When I start lifting weights (not something I do regularly, just pick up every now and again) I'm sore a bit after the first day, but nothing after that.  No matter how hard I feel like I'm pushing myself, I don't even get a mild soreness like you had a good work out.  I know what that feels like because I used to get it in high school, but I'm 22 now and have been consistently working out (mostly cardio), but never ever get sore.  For example, I haven't done anything with my arms, lifting wise in quite a while, the other day I did a pretty intense set of stuff with my arms/shoulders/pecs, my pecs were a tad sore for a day, and I did it again two days after, and now, nothing.  I even pushed myself more.  The first day I did 30lb 3x12 bicep curls, 45lb 2x12 and 60lb 2x8 chest presses, 30lbs 3x12 butterflies, and 30lb 3x12 tricep extensions.  It seemed pretty intense at the time, and I was tired afterwards.  But not really sore.  Two days later I upped each of the weights by 5lbs and did a few more reps of each, and now (a day after that) I'm not sore at all.  I'm trying to add in weights to tone up from a loss of about 90lbs in the past year and a half.

I was just wondering if I'm not doing enough, not pushing myself enough, or if I'm just oddly luckly and don't get muscle soreness that everyone else talks about so much.

If it makes any difference, I also do about 30 minutes of cardio after the weight lifting, and I drink plenty of water.

How sore you are doesn't indicate progress, how much actual progress you make (more weight, more reps, etc) indicates progress.

Although it does sound like you are doing a) some isolation exercises and b) a lot of (all) machines so (if you don't mind a little constructive criticism) you might want to switch to doing more compound exercises with free weights.

But that won't necessarily increase your DOMS.

Heh, I don't mind constructive critism at all!  I just do those machines because I'm familar with them and comfortable using them.  If I can work up the courage to venture over to the free weight area of the gym, I just might try some.  That part is usually populated with the football/rugby teams, so its a bit intimidating, as well as being really exposed (there's a glass wall there that faces out into the front lobby of the gym), but its certainly a good idea!

I'm not very familar with using free weights, is there anything you guys would suggest that would work similar muscle groups?

Also!  I don't *want* to be sore, per se.  I just want to know if I'm being effective, because it seems out of the ordinary not to be.  That might be one of the reasons I dont usually keep up with it.

Thanks for the responses!

Quoted from an old post by floggingsully (I keep it handy in my journal just for this):

Think of working movements instead of muscle groups.  Your body is designed to move in ways that incorporate multiple muscle groups working together, so if you lift like that you'll get better results with less risk of injury.  There are 4 main movements your upper body is designed to do, I'd pick one exercise from each (and change the exercises every now and then) and do 3 sets of 8-12 reps for each.

1) horizontal push - push up, bench press, incline bench press, decline bench press, etc.

2) vertical push - military press, shoulder press, arnold press

3) horizontal pull - bent over rows, seated cabel rows

4) vertical pull - lat pulldowns, lat pullovers, pullups, chinups

For your lower body there are two main movements, quad dominant movements and hip dominant movements, pick one of each and forget the isolation exercises (leg extensions, leg curls, abductors) with the possible exception of calf raises

1) quad dominant - Squats, front squats, overhead squats, hack squats

2) hip dominant - deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, romanian deadlifts, good mornings

3) unilateral movements - lunges or step ups

You might also be interested in reading New Rules of Lifting for Women, and a lot of people on here recommend Starting Strength.

I used to feel the exact same way when I only used machines!  I kept upping and upping my weights and did not feel sore, and I figured there was something wrong.  Since I've changed to free weights, I am sore in some way after nearly every workout, and it's been 3x a week for probably 3 months now.  The interesting thing is that you can't lift nearly as much weight either because it's not assisted.  Like, I can do 55 lbs on the bicep curl machine, but I am struggling at 15 lbs with dumbells.  I have to also say that although it's sometimes annoying to read everyone responding with "squats, lunges, and deadlifts", they really do work.